Tides of Fire by James Rollins

Published by William Morrow on August 15, 2023

Readers know what they’re getting in a Sigma Force thriller:  action, undersea adventure, above-sea adventure, fights, explosions, and more action. Sigma Force is a “clandestine organization operating at the periphery of military structure.” Military operatives have been “re-trained in various scientific disciplines.” In other words, soldiers have been made into scientists. Wouldn’t it be easier to make scientists into soldiers? I mean, it takes longer to master a science than to master the art of fighting. Doesn’t matter. Readers are best served by not thinking too deeply about Sigma Force novels.

Much of the action takes place off the coast of Australia in the Coral Sea, home of the Titan Project. The Titan X, a “thousand-foot-long gigayacht,” houses a couple dozen research laboratories. The yacht supports Titan Station, a research facility that consists of a floating platform (Titan Station Up) and an inverted pyramid consisting of five tiers that rests two miles below the ocean surface (Titan Station Down). Submersibles ferry researchers from Up to Down and back.

In the early years of the nineteenth century, Sir Thomas Raffles was investigating the relationship between volcanic eruptions in Southeast Asia and people who turn to stone. Rather than turning his findings into a report that would benefit humanity, he divided his research papers and hid them in separate places to make it as difficult as possible for researchers to find them when they will be most needed. That makes no sense, but hiding secrets that will save the planet from disaster is a common thriller theme. What fun would it be if the hero could just pick up a book and find the solution?

Back in the present, marine biologist Phoebe Reed is studying deep-sea coral for the Titan Project. She wonders if coral exists in the deep trenches that extend below the seabed. While she’s puzzling over that question, she discovers that a new form of coral has a nasty stinger. Yes, the stinger turns people to stone, or into something that resembles stone.

Reed also discovers a Chinese submarine that crashed through the coral on the seabed. It turns out that the submarine was armed with nuclear weapons and the Chinese military doesn’t want anyone snooping around it. Of equal importance, the coral doesn’t like being disturbed by radioactive submarines.

James Rollins fills his books with characters. This one includes nineteenth century sailors and explorers, members of a Chinese triad, Grayson Pierce and his Sigma Force operatives, officers of the PLA, employees of a couple different museums, and a Russian assassin who sets up the next novel in the series. None of the characters have much personality. They exist to drive the action unless they are standing to the side and explaining the plot. Readers probably don’t pick up a Rollins novel expecting a character-driven story. There’s no risk of finding one here.

The plot is a bit eye-rolling. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions threaten to destroy all life on the planet. One school of thought blames the Chinese. Another school of thought holds that the natural disasters are caused by cheesed-off undersea dragons. Thankfully, indigenous people in Raffles' day knew how to appease the dragons. Sigma Force and Chinese soldiers battle to uncover the secret to appeasement that Raffles carefully concealed. Meanwhile, the heroes of the Titan Project are dodging Chinese torpedoes and various undersea menaces.

Rollins includes an abundance of sciency-sounding explanations in an attempt to make the plot seem plausible. Still, the story doesn’t make much sense. I haven’t mentioned the ancient planetoid that split apart, crashing into both the Earth and the moon. Parts of the planetoid on the Earth and moon are talking to each other. Certain Chinese villains think they can weaponize the planetoid. The scientists suspect that some of the earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural disasters were unwittingly caused by Chinese astronauts poking around on the moon, so don’t blame the sea dragons. They just want to be left alone but they turn out to be helpful if they hear the right music.

So yeah, the plot often devolves into silliness, but rationality (like characterization and graceful prose) isn’t a central feature of action-adventure thrillers. The point is action and adventure. Rollins regularly destroys parts of the world. In Tides of Fire, earthquakes and volcanos threaten an extinction event. I’ve never been a big Rollins fan and this novel didn’t convert me, but I give Rollins credit for putting in an enormous amount of work to make the story go. Tides of Fire delivers a fast-moving action/adventure story and that’s all it’s meant to do.

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